Cuban: Coronavirus Could Mean NBA Hiatus Now, With Finals in August
DALLAS - At 4:17 p.m. CT on Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks' youthful superstar Luka Doncic expressed a lovely game-day view about the climate in North Texas.
"What a nice day in Dallas!'' Doncic tweeted.
At 10:43 p.m. came a different social-media mood from Luka.
"2020 is being very bad year!! Stay safe folks,'' he wrote.
On The Morning After, the NBA and the sports world face a different climate indeed, all due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the NBA's decision to suspend regular-season play following the conclusion of Wednesday's Denver Nuggets-at-Mavericks game the AAC, Mavs owner Mark Cuban phrased perfectly the nature of the crisis.
"This,'' Cuban said of this strain of coronavirus and its impact on the NBA and beyond, "is a Black Swan event.''
(Here's our live coverage from the AAC on Tuesday about how the decision came down, and how the Mavs and the rest of the NBA will proceed, featuring some on-the-spot leadership from Cuban.)
On Wednesday night, Cuban also suggested that while all of this is much bigger than basketball - "I’m a lot more worried about my kids and my mom who is 82 years old, in talking to her and telling her to stay in the house, than I am about when we play our next game,'' he said - NBA games could figure to resume later because the league has nothing but open spaces on the calendar following the previously-assumed mid-April end to the NBA Finals.
On Thursday, as all involved continue to gather information, Cuban appeared on "Get Up'' on ESPN and fine-tuned his calendar-minded view.
Cuban suggested the NBA could play "seven or eight'' regular-season games to regain some on-court coordination before moving on to the NBA Playoffs, which he said could last through August.
This is all preliminary, of course. But needs to be considered by the NBA, and similarly, by Major League Baseball and the NFL. (Here, the scoop on what the NFL's Dallas Cowboys are - and are not - doing so far in response to the crisis.)
Ultimately, though, as Cuban said on Wednesday night: "It’s more important for us to get it right.”
